Arc de Triomphe

Our training ended around 4pm yesterday. So after leaving our bags back to the hotel, we set off to make the most of the remaining daylight for the day. We walked from our hotel at Rue Le Peletier to the Arc de Tromphe in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle which is about 3.2km away. It took us approximately 40 minutes to get there in the drizzle. I was so worried that my passport would get wet as my jacket already did. Thank goodness it is still in good shape.

Arc de Triomphe in Paris is a monument to honor those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleanic war. On the walls of the arc, there are the inscripted names of generals and wars fought. It is the world's largest triumphal arc.

There is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier underneath the arc. Its eternal flame commemorates the dead of the two world wars, and is rekindled every evening at 6:30.

Musée du Louvre

Musée du Louvre or the Louvre Museum is a national museum of France. I know from very long time ago that this is the home of Mona Lisa, and was enticed further by it after reading the book "The Da Vinci's Code".

So when I got to know about my Paris trip, I told myself that I must go to this museum.. and I did, on the same day that I stepped foot on Paris soil. It was the 1st Sunday of the month, and you know what that means? No entrance fees to most of the museums here! Yippee!!

I finally saw Mona Lisa and like what many people have already told me, the painting is small. With the distance allowed for viewing and the amount of people there, I did not manage to get a clear picture of it. So you won't be seeing this painting from my collages below.

Louvre Museum is sooooooooo huge. If you really enjoy art, you can easily spend the whole day here. Unfortunately I am not a very arty person... so after a few paintings and sculptures, I got a little bit bored. My colleague and I were there for about 4 hours starting from 9.00am opening time. I am pretty sure we have missed out many of the sections but well, we already got enough art for a day.

Anyhow, I love love love the pyramid.

First day in Paris

(I am posting this using my iPod Touch, so I can't post any pictures.)

We finally reached Paris yesterday morning around 6am Paris time after a long 12 hours of flight. The CDG airport is pretty small, sort of reminded me of our old Subang airport. The signboards are pretty clear though letting you know where you should go to take taxi, bus or the RER(train station). However I noticed if the sign shows a vertical down arrow, it doesn't mean "go down". Instead it means "go straight". We were a bit confused by this when we were hunting for the toilet. If it is a diagonal down arrow, then that means "go down".

We went out to take a taxi and got a Chinese driver. He couldn't understand our English and we couldn't understand his French. Thank goodness he asked us whether we speak Chinese! So actually Chinese is also a very handy language in Paris.

The taxi ride from CDG to our hotel in Rue(means "road") Le Peletier cost €38,20. The journey is about 30mins. As we could only check in at 2pm, we left our luggages at the reception and we out to the Louvre Museum. It is sooo cold outside.... Brrrrrrr

As it is the 1st Sunday of the month, entry to this museum is free! Hopefully I get to borrow my colleague's laptop tonight so that I can post up some pics.

Okay time for me to get ready to go for my training. More posts coming soon.